Whispering_Jack

The official NAB Under 18 Championships record says he is/was 178 cm 78 kg from West Perth/Kingsley JFC. Perhaps he was a point guard who grew fast. Is there anyone over there in WA who can help us out here?

August 30 1947 [Thanks to the Sunday Age for bringing this piece of news to my attention] It's the last game of the season and Melbourne is playing St. Kilda in front of 6,000 fans at the Junction Oval. Demon full forward Fred Fanning is playing his farewell game and starts the day on 79 goals for the season and a career total of 398. He boots 18 goals to break three of Norm Smith's goalkicking milestones (80 goals in 1938, 85 in 1940 and 89 in 1941) in the one afternoon. His 18 goal haul remains an AFL/VFL record and only two Demons have reached double figures in a game since - Alan Jakovich with 11 v North Melbourne in round 20, 1991 and Garry Lyon with 10 against Footscray in the 1994 first semi final. How many for Robbo today? Footnote: The year after fabulous Fred's fantastic achievement Melbourne, without their champion full forward, went on to win the 1948 premiership. It might be a stretch to think that history could repeat itself so I'll settle for a half repeat and go for next year's flag. We can do without any record breaking goal kicking exploits today anyway!

Just goes to show how good Neil Craig is as an AFL coach. Of all the coaches who haven't won a premiership flag (and some would argue that he was the one who got Adelaide over the line in '97-'97) I rate him the most. The rapid development of his team and some of the younger players in the side has been an exceptional achievement. The Crows have never had a top 5 draft pick but they still have a team that looks very capable of going all the way this year.

As much as we dislike Carlton the fact remains that they're in the top 8 this year and we are not. And as much as we dislike the way the Blues and their supporters talk and behave (they're not strutting around so much this morning), the tactics they use to get players and the way they appear to circumvent the rules to get their way, they have achieved in 2009 and we have not. I'll be supporting the Lions next weekend but I also hope that we adopt the same aggressive and uncompromising attitude the Blues have to their trading and drafting this year as what they did a couple of years ago when they were down on the floor and held early national and psd picks.

WA Draft camp invitees: Travis Colyer, Nat Fyfe, Gerrick Weedon, Nicholas Winmar (Claremont), Lewis Jetta (Swan Districts), Mark Hutchings, Mitch Duncan (East Perth), Anthony Morabito, Aaron Black (Peel), Josh Donaldson, Anthony Delborello (West Perth), Kane Lucas, Brad Sheppard (East Fremantle).

It seems that just as there is more than one Mitchell Brown in the football world, there is also more than one Aaron Black. The one who was in the WA U18 National Champs team is 178cm tall and too young to be drafted.

Can't agree. With all due respect to Paul Wheatley, the number 31 hasn't been associated with champions at Melbourne since Barassi went to Carlton. Most of its wearers have been disappointing and, although Wheaters has been a real workhorse, he's never reached the heights of RDB. I'd give 31 to someone like Jordie McKenzie who is starting his career on the ground floor and looks like the type who might work his way up in time. The legend goes that this is what Barass did at the club - he wasn't the most skillful early in his career, he just worked hard on everything and ultimatley not only perfected his game but became the most inspirational character in the competition.

According to a brief par in today's Herald Sun the national draft has been brought forward to Thursday 26 November and will be shown live on Foxtel (with the pre recorded countback from 10 to 1). I'm not a big fan of the countback idea but given that Melbourne is almost certain to have the first two selections it should be pretty entertaining for us Demon fans so I'm willing to cop the suspense and the hoo ha of it all. Only three months to go and, after all that's happened with the Demons this season, nothing much in between (apart from trade week) is going to matter.

Surely the AFL could arrange some form of insurance policy to cover such an eventuality? Not playing qualified players in finals is an insult to your alignment partner. What if they turned around next year and decided to develop their own home grown players and select their AFL players in the reserves? It's been done interstate.

The rule is ordinary in the context of what happened in this incident but it's the rule and the decision is correct. The Hawks should be focussing now on a game they need to win to make the finals instead of on tribunal matters.

Where is Miller?

In some rounds the rules differ. For this round if a player turns 19 during the calendar year and came out of the TAC Cup, then the player qualifies.

And thanks for coming and enlightening us not only on Liam's journey but on the work being done by the Industrial Magpies in the area of bringing about reconciliation in this country. Time has prevented me from preparing a report on the meeting but I'll try to weave some of the stories in a future article. As for LJ, his game was sensational and I can't wait to see him when he has had his first pre season with the Dees. I fulfilled my promise by downloading a Strange Tenant's sone from Itunes. I'm now the proud possessor of "Calling all Rudeboys" - the song is very catchy but you'd never forget the lyrics when performing the song would you? And on a further note ... we followed up yet another Demonland/Demonology function with a win at the MCG. The way things are going we might have to have 10 or 11 functions next year and a special long one before the Collingwood game.

Fifteen minutes to go. Where is everbody?

Thanks Casey Scorp. Will the new development contain additional seating for the public? There seems to be very little seating at the ground ATM considering the aspirations some people have for this ground.

JUST BUMPING THIS UP AS A REMINDER The function is a get together of Demonlanders and Demonologists before Sunday's game - all are welcome and it's free!

Earlier this year I travelled to the Gold Coast where I attended a club function on the eve of the St. Kilda game. Dean Bailey made it clear that he was going to continue to focus on youth and that Melbourne would have the youngest list in the AFL next year. This immediately put into doubt the careers of the club's older brigade who obviously needed to do something special to retain their places. A decade ago, clubs could carry a few players in their veteran years but the way it's played these days together with the economic costs dictate that you can't do it with those who have recent records of injury such as Robbo, Wheats and Wheels. If you want to use the options available to bring good young talent into your playing group then you have to make some sacrifices somewhere and some players in their late 20's who might previously have played on and possibly have given good service for a couple more years must make way for youth. That doesn't take away a thing from the decade of service (more in Robbo's case) devoted to the club by this trio and by Junior should he decide to go. Congratulations to all of them for their fine careers and great service to the club. Robbo has been one of our all time great goalkickers, a B & F winner and one of the great characters at the club. Wheats has been a workhorse who was probably forced by circumstances to reshape his game on more than one occasion. Like a couple of others above, I too remember that early game he played at CHF which possibly led me to wrongly believe that he was always capable of producing more in his career. Wheels has always been one of my favourites who IMO also should have had a longer and more decorated career but for the intervention of injury. He's been a great mentor for our younger indigenous players and will leave a gaping hole at the club if he retires. In fact, they all will if they indeed retire. On those who prefer to be more than critical and even engage in personal attacks on loyal servants of the club who only gave of their best over a long period of time I can only endorse the comments of Redleg and Fan above. There's a great article in today's Age on this issue and I agree that when people have to resort to nasty and snide attacks on sportsmen, it's often more a poor reflection on the person making the comments than anything else.

Does anyone know how young Vandelay who attracted some attention last year but wasn't drafted is going ATM?

The panel on Hutchy's TAC Cup Future Stars had a crack at a Phantom Draft yesterday and came up with the following (based on positions at the time of the programme): - 1. Melbourne - Tom Scully (Dandenong Stingrays) 2. Melbourne - Jack Trengove (Sturt SA) 3. Fremantle - Anthony Morabito (Peel Thunder WA) 4. North Melbourne - Dustin Martin (Bendigo Pioneers) 5. West Coast - Kane Lucas (East Fremantle WA) 6. Richmond - John Butcher (Gippsland Power) 7. Sydney - Gary Rohan (Geelong Falcons) 8. Hawthorn - Ben Cunnington (Geelong Falcons) 9. Essendon - Koby Stevens (Gippsland Power) 10. Port Adelaide - Luke Tapscott (North Adelaide SA) 11. Carlton - Alan Christensen (Geelong Falcons) 12. Brisbane Lions - Jesse Chrichton (Tassie Mariners, TAS) 13. Adelaide - Jake Carlisle (Calder Cannons) 14. Collingwood - Nathan Vardy (Gippsland Power) 15. Western Bulldogs - Daniel Talia (Calder Cannons) 16. Geelong - Andrew Moore (Eastern Ranges) 17. St Kilda - Jordan Gysberts (Eastern Ranges)

I have a gut feeling that Robbo will be in the side next week and it might even be his swan song. He was presumably the emergency for today's game and he should be given a send off game and it should be on his beloved MCG. Better that it should be against the Dockers next week rather than against the Saints in Round 22.

This quarter is being dedicated to Tom Scully!

Apologies. I meant the rookie list. (just dazzled by the standard of the game on TV)

At half time its North Ballarat 7.14.56 to Casey Scorpions 1.2.8 This is not fun. There are two Demons out there (one a rookie) against some serious talent. Fortunatley, Casey has a bye next week. For Hughes to come into the side tomorrow he would have to be elevated off the long term injury list. I think we have a few long term injured players around to accomodate him. Otherwise we could play him anyway and forfeit the points for playing an ineligible player ... now there's a ... no just forget it!

They say he's built like a tank so he could make a very goot fit for the club the way things are going ATM.

So ... missing from round one are: Matthew Warnock, Colin Garland, Brad Green, Brock McLean, Paul Johnson, Simon Buckley and Jamie Bennell. Some good names there but seven changes over almost the span of a whole season is not really as bad as I had expected given that we're supposed to be list managing. St. Kilda are said to be likely to finish with seven changes for the week if Dal Santo doesn't come up to scratch today.